Japan would know that there were Filipinos living there. Being an educator, Gen. Ricarte taught Spanish language at the Kaigai Shokumin Gakko School in Tokyo. To augment the family income, Agueda sold copies of her husband's book, "Hispano-Philippine Revolution", or Himagsikan nang manga Pilipino Laban sa Kastila (The Revolution of Filipinos Against the Spaniards) was published in Yokohama in 1927. It became very saleable to Filipinos on board ship. Agueda Esteban, his wife engaged in the real estate business, which enabled the couple to purchase three houses in Japan. In all the years they stayed in Japan, the dream of an independent Philippines of Gen. Ricarte never waned. Every year, he never failed to celebrate Rizal Day and Bonifacio Day by hosting big affairs with Filipino residents and Japanese officials. Wartime and Ricarte's return to the Philippines Just as Ricarte's life was fading away into obscurity, World War II began and Imperial Japanese Army invaded the Philippines. In 1942, when Japan's military forces occupied Manila, Prime Minister Tojo asked Ricarte to return to the Philippines to help maintain peace and order. He agreed and requested Tojo to give Philippines its genuine independence from the American colonial rule. Tojo thus promised Ricarte that if he could bring about peace and order in the Philippines within a year, the Japanese government would hand back to the Filipino people their independence. As he had always aspired to see a free Philippines, Ricarte accepted the offer. Under this agreement, he gained the respect of the Japanese and Filipino nationalists like Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1943, Japan nominally granted the Philippines independence with the establishment of the Second Philippine Republic, formally known as "The Republic of the Philippines," which in actuality was a puppet state of Japan. Ricarte and Benigno Ramos Sometime in November 1944, Gen. Artemio Ricarte informed his wife, Agueda that President Laurel and his cabinet would have a meeting in Baguio with high-ranking Japanese officials and that he had to be present there. He would tell her further that in case he had to stay longer in Baguio, he would send for his family to join him. Before he left Baguio, Benigno Ramos, the leader-founder of MAKAPILI, invited him over to his place (where the Christ the King building in Quezon City is now located). He went there together with his granddaughter Ma. Luisa D. Fleetwood. While they were having their lunch, Ramos